1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the installation of tiles on walls, floors and counter surfaces.
2. Background
At the present time, most tile installations are performed on site, requiring skilled, experienced professionals. In addition to being costly and time consuming, the installation involves the use of many materials, usually leaving a mess to be cleared up.
Over the past few decades a number of inventive tiling approaches have been offered to reduce the cost, installation time and subsequent mess incurred when tiled areas are required. These approaches have centered on the needs of kitchen and bathroom tiling as for example, does U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,488 by Markham which describes a prefabricated tiled counter. Yet others describe only some particular parts of tiled installations. U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,005 by Han describes a prefabricated tile panel which is illustrated as used to install tiled shower walls or a counter top. The Han panel art does not address the critical issue of proper joining of adjacent panels, nor does it address the setting of the tiles per panel to conform to the adjacent panels, but rather shows every panel in the same tile configuration. It is not apparent how the Han panels can be used to install a continuing non standard size, shape or variable tile design pattern over any given surface area that extends beyond one panel in any direction.
None of the prior or current art tiling methods and approaches provide any guidance for the installation of large area tiled surfaces, including designs or tiles of varying sizes. To install such a tiled array continues to require skilled hand installation, tile by tile at the site. Further, many of the modular type tiling innovations such as use of pretiled panels, have not been adopted by the building industry or by do-it-yourself homeowners for reasons including inherent installation defects, high required skill levels for installation or cost.